“you ‘avin’ a larf?”
As David Brent – the boss in Ricky Gervais’ brilliant comedy series “The Office” repeatedly said ‘you havin’ a larf’ – it would appear that in Australia the answer is NO when it comes to home made comedy.
Currently our television program guide is dominated with cop dramas, crime reality shows and ‘talent’ shows with a spattering of drama. So why isn’t our collective funny bone being tickled?
Persistence has paid off for Channel 9 and 2 ½ Men. As mentioned in earlier columns Channel 9 certainly gets their value for money with this show with one new episode and five repeats each week and all episode s(new or old!) consistently rating strongly. However after screening for seven seasons, the show should be called 2 ¾ Men with Angus T Jones who plays Jake Harper now 17 years old.
Cougar Town, starring former Friends star Courtney Cox, about a 40 something mom back out in the dating scene is, the male version of 2 ½ Men. The show started with a high (as it should have after a massive promo push) and has settled to some consistent ratings over the last few weeks but for me is as funny as being trapped in a cage with a real cougar.
Whether you like them or not, sitcoms How I Met Your Mother (Thursdays 9pm Channel 7), Big Bang Theory (Channel 9 Mondays 8pm), 30 Rock (Mondays 11.30pm) Scrubs (somewhere) and Family Guy (Channel 7, Thursdays 10.30pm) are all imports.
So where’s our sense of ‘umour, (as Kim from Kath and Kim would say) when it comes to home-grown comedy?
Speaking of which, Channel 7 and fans of Kath and Kim have to wait even longer for the much anticipated next series. Kim, aka Jane Turner, has followed her co-conspirator, Gina Riley onto the boards. Gina performed in Chicago last year and now Jane is off to the West End to star in a theatre production called Holding The Man. Whilst I can’t see it happening, Rick McKenna, producer of Kath and Kim says another series is slated ‘for later this year’.
More waiting too for Chris Lilley fans with his comedic creation, Angry Boys, currently in production. However the ABC has now confirmed that we won’t see this until 2011.
Meanwhile the ABC is screening locally produced Sleuth 101 (Fridays 8pm). It’s a quirky who-dunnit hosted by Cal Wilson, best described as Thank God You’re Here (repeats on Channel 7, Thursdays 9.30pm) meets Cluedo.
The six episodes has a comedian (Frank Woodley, Clare Hooper, Adam Richards) trying to solve a murder – which is acted out by well known faces including Denise Drysdale, John Wood and Frankie J Holden. It’s an enjoyable show with the viewer able to be the couch-based cop looking for clues and solving the crime along the way. This would be better suited on the ABC’s mid-week comedy night – Wednesdays and would sit nicely after Spicks and Specks, and garner a bigger audience.
Channel 7 meanwhile, attempted to humour audiences with an original concept in The White Room (Thursdays 7.30pm). The concept is simple – a panel of two teams made up of three comedians/actors/ Channel 7 connected people – to answer questions about television. A show about television on television – seems like a winner to me. The segments included Theme Me Up Scotty and 3D TV (where the panelists were blindfolded and given clues to guess the name of the show. For example a rock and a bowl of whizz fizz was RocKwiz – SBS’s Saturdays 9.30pm). My favourite segment was So You Think You Can Guess with four unlikely dancers acting out television shows in flurosencet Lycra outfits.
But after just two week it has been pulled due to poor ratings. That said, Ghost Whisperer which was its replacement didn’t rate much better.
After being a popular competitor on Dancing with the Stars, comedian An Doh shot a pilot for Channel 7 late last year. Word is that it was well received but no news had emerged as to whether it was going to get a green light or not. Wow that The White Room has been axed it might be rushed through.
Meanwhile, at Channel 9, Eddie Mcguire and Mick Molloy have shot a pilot called “Skating on thin ice” – a blend of comedy and sport. A somewhat prophetic title given what was to unfold when they provided some commentary about the ice-skating during the Winter Olympics which is now the subject of an anti-discrimination investigation.
Not technically a comedy, but something humorous is a new show called When I Grow Up to screen on Channel 9 shortly. This show which was originally slated for Bert Newton to host will now be presented by Shane Jacobson aka Kenny. A blend of Bill Cosby’s show “Kids say the Darndest Things” and Candid Camera, kids will interview celebrities, while comedians including Tom Gleeson, Colin Lane and Peter Berner will help kids pull stunts on adults. It will either be seriously cute or seriously bad.
The final mention goes to one of the greatest modern comedians who kept us amused for a decade but has been off the small screen for about the same amount of time – Jerry Seinfeld. His latest show –The Marriage Ref, is about warring couples. The show will debut in the US later this month having been recorded in front of studio audience.
The show will see a panel of celebrities including Madonna, Ricky Gervais and Larry David, decide which spouse should be declared “winner” of a domestic spat filmed in their own homes. Channel 7 will be screening it and making a local version too, which of course is terrific but just where has our unique sense of humour gone?
